Pupil Premium – Policy Statement

From September 2018 the Government has widened the ‘definition’ of Children Looked After (CLA) to include children who were previously looked after, those on special guardianship orders, residency orders and students who have been adopted. Funding and further support may be available to support the educational attainment of these children, if you would like to discuss this please contact Mr Whalley Deputy Headteacher.

Thank you to those parents and carers who have already been in touch.

Rationale

At Fred Longworth High School all members of staff and governors accept responsibility for those pupils recognised as ‘disadvantaged’ and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs. Every child who is considered to be ‘disadvantaged’ is valued, respected and entitled to develop to his/her full potential irrespective of disadvantage.

Background to the Pupil Premium

Introduced in April 2011, the Pupil Premium is a Government initiative that provides additional funding aimed at pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Research shows that pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds underachieve compared to their non-disadvantaged peers. The Pupil Premium is provided in order to support these pupils in reaching their potential by accelerating their progress. Students receive Pupil Premium if they have been in receipt of Free School Meals within the last six years, so Pupil Premium students are not all currently ‘disadvantaged’ as students may not always be in receipt of Free School Meals throughout their secondary school years.

The Government has used pupils entitled to Free School Meals and those who are looked after as an indicator for deprivation. They have given a fixed amount of money to schools per pupil, based on the number of pupils registered for Free School Meals and who are looked after by the local authority. A premium has also been introduced for children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces. This service premium is designed to address the emotional and social well-being of these pupils.

Overall Objectives:

Our school will ensure that the Pupil Premium funding reaches the groups of pupils for whom it was intended and that it makes a significant impact on their education and lives.

The Pupil Premium will be used to provide additional educational support to improve the progress and raise the achievement for these pupils.

The funding will be used to narrow and close the gap between the achievement of these pupils and their peers.

The school will use the additional funding to address any underlying inequalities between children eligible for Pupil Premium and others.

How will we ensure effective use of the Pupil Premium?

The Pupil Premium will be clearly identifiable within the budget.

The Headteacher in consultation with the governors and staff will decide how the Pupil Premium is spent for the benefit of the entitled pupils. Funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority groups or individuals.

In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, we recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged or underachieving. We also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We therefore reserve the right to allocate Pupil Premium funding to support any groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.

The school will assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupil.

The school will be accountable for how is has used the additional funding to support the achievement of those pupils covered by the Pupil Premium.

The Headteacher will regularly report to the governing body and parents on how effective the intervention has been in achieving its aims, including publishing online information about how the Premium has been used.

We will track the impact of the strategies put into place through the funding to ensure that we can show the value that has been added to the education of the entitled children.

We will monitor evaluate and review the success of the impact of the pupil premium funding.

Provision

We will regularly seek to further develop strategies and interventions which can improve the progress and attainment of these pupils. Examples of the range of provision we may put in place include:

Providing small group or 1:1 support with an experienced member of staff to focus on overcoming barriers to learning

Facilitating pupils’ access to education and the curriculum through additional or specialist resources e.g. specialist software